Our episode begins with a press conference for Hercule, as
he outlines his expectations of this year's World Martial
Arts tournament. Even after some questions about getting whipped
by Trunks, Hercule is able to play it off in typical style
by reminding everyone that the match was just an "exhibition."

(Note to self: Develop personal adaptations of Hercule's
marketing strategy to sell line of T-Shirts)

The World Martial Arts Tournament really gets underway in
today's episode with the first of the Adult Division matches;
Krillin vs. Pitoken and Piccolo vs. Shin.

For those not in the "know" Pitoken is this insanely
large fighter with the stereotypical Indian accent. He's been
talking trash to Krillin for a few episodes now, and we finally
get to see what happens.

The round lasts a few moments, but only about 30 seconds
of actual fighting. Due to Krillin's overwhelming "niceness",
Pitoken really manages only to get creamed in the gentlest
possible manner; he gets kicked out of the ring after a slight
reprimand for his foul insults.

During this time, Piccolo becomes increasingly agitated thinking
about his upcoming battle with Shin. Who is he? And why does
Piccolo have this sense of familiarity with his energy? He
has only moments to contemplate this questions as the second
match in the tournament is called his round.

Piccolo and Shin step onto the ring and stand there

and stand there

and stand there

For some reason, Piccolo is unable to focus his energy, to
bring himself to attack. He's never met this guy before and
yet he still seems to recognize him, but from where? And what
is his purpose here?

"I promise you will know soon, Piccolo."

Amazingly, Shin can read Piccolo's thoughts! With a flash,
Piccolo so shocked with his realization of who he is that
he forfeits the fight. The other Z Warriors are amazed, and
are even more so when Piccolo tells Goku that yes, Shin really
is that strong.

With that, the third match is Videl vs. Sappopovich!

The Review

Pre-review- Before I get into the actual guts of the
episode I must first comment that this episode had a lot of
"Little Things" that made this episode extremely
entertaining to watch, but very hard to explain in a concise
manner. Therefore, I recommend that if you missed tonight's
episode (9/28), try to watch it when it re-airs on The Midnight
Run sometime next week (The midnight run is currently 3 episodes
behind, and due to Adult Swim on Thursdays, that "lag
time" should grow by one episode per week.).

Animation

The animation in the recent episodes have really once again
stepped up in the level of detail and fluidity, which means
if the Laws of DBZ Animation are valid, that some pretty important
stuff is going to be happening in the next few episodes, especially
since we saw some important events occur today.

The coloration was top notch, and shading was not overdone.
I've been amazed at the last couple of episodes in regard
to the apparent Cell Quality of the animations used, they
seem very clean and precisely painted. How do I know?

because of the quality of the final product.

Once again this episode receives another top score for animation.

Choreography

The choreography of today's episode was definitely geared
more toward the dramatic. Heavy use of three-quarter perspective
close-ups with incredible detail to the faces indicate to
me that the Storyboard designers were really trying to focus
on the portrayal of emotion, particularly agitation in the
case of Piccolo.

Because of this, I noticed a trade-off in the lack of fluid
action shots that have so become a favorite of DBZ. While
I admired the excellent job used to create the dramatic atmosphere
in the perspectives (The profile shot of Piccolo opening his
eye and looking "forward" at us was very well done).
I feel that they might have been able to use some more cinematic
techniques to enhance this effect. Most likely the "Short
Focus à Long Focus" shot, where Shin (up close)
would appear in focus, then go out of focus as Piccolo slowly
came into focus with the look of agitation or suppressed uneasiness
that we saw so much of.

The choreography was well suited to this episode.

Music

Well I think today was the first episode that I noticed
the "Shin Music." It seems every character in FUNi's
version has a "Theme Song" anytime they are the
focus of a sequence. I'm sure the music was there a couple
of episodes ago, but this was the first time I noticed it.

Dialogue

While sparkled with humor, the Dialogue simply did not pack
the same punch it was in the previous episodes. My guess is
simply the fact that there are not as many funny situations
in this episode.

Some notable exceptions were the dialogue between Krillin
and Pitoken, and the mini-cat fight between Bulma and Chi-Chi
over who's going win, Goku or Vegeta? Since not even the "Otaku
Elite" out there still are arguing about this point,
I think its needless to say that the argument ended without
a clear victor.

Plot

There were a lot of nuances in animation and dialogue that
really conveyed a lot of the plot. This makes today's episodes
one of those that really need to be seen in order to truly
understand the plot advances made, and their significance.

Perhaps a good example is the look that Shin gives Spopovitch
at the very end of the episode. You all the sudden find yourself
asking, "Wait, why would he be doing that?"

All I can saw is some interesting plot twists are on the
way.

Overall

With a heavy focus on drama through the Characters, this
was not a typical DBZ episode, but a good one nonetheless.
I enjoyed all the little things that occurred and their possible
significance, even challenging myself as to whether or not
they might just be "What they are" and nothing more.

If you are relying on our episode reviews solely to find
out what's going on, stop. Get off your butt and start finding
a way to watch these episodes. Record them, buy them .
something, because you are missing out.